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Yulin Dog Meat Festival

The Yulin Lychee and Dog Meat Festival, which serves up 15,000 dogs and cats, will start as planned on the Summer Solstice, undeterred by an alleged local, temporary ban on dog meat sales, which Chinese officials and dog meat vendors have disavowed.

The festival was started in 2010 as an economic strategy to boost the dog meat trade. It is a 10-day celebration of cruelty, with dogs and cats bludgeoned, often skinned alive, and roasted (alive) over a fire—while the crowd cheers. Some of the dogs are stolen pets, with their collars still in place.

While slow, progress has been made by humane organizations and activists: the size of the Yulin festival has declined, and there is increasing outrage and pressure both within China and internationally. This year a petition garnered 11M signatures calling for the end of the festival.

The path forward is likely to be protracted. Earlier this year China passed a “Foreign NGOs Law” which scrutinizes and requires official approval of the work of foreign activist organizations in that country. Until organizations like Humane Society International, a forerunner working to end the suffering of animals in Asia’s dog meat trade, receive permission from the Chinese government to continue their work, activities will be led by Chinese partners and activists.

In a country where eating cats and dogs is a long-standing practice in certain areas (as it is in some other Asian countries) a mindset shift to compassion—or at least to less cruel practices—likely will require continual, multi-tiered efforts to legislate change internally, to bring awareness and gently educate, and to provide viable alternatives. A substantive transformation in behavior and norms likely comes from cultural influences (we humans are, after all, communal animals) and a resultant internal shift in us that arises from considering things in a different way than we have before. Ultimately, hope lies in our ability to see animals as sentient beings.

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“Saving just one animal won’t change the world…but the world will change for that one animal.” Author unknown

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Action Ideas

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Please don't convince yourself that someone else will help a stray or that the animal will find its way home. Stop and help. If needed, call the police or local shelter for assistance.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• The Humane League’s mission has been to save the lives of as many animals as possible and to reduce as much animal cruelty as they can: thehumaneleague.com/donate/
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Donate your car to HSUS, get a tax write-off, they pick it up for free, you feel good ... onecarhelpshumane
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Many rural shelters are overcrowded and have a low adoption rate. For $25 you can transport a dog to an adoption site in the Northeast:
theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/store/ars/item/53356/?adId=138518&placementId=381055&origin
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• List of cruelty-free product manufacturers: leapingbunny.org.images/globalguide.pdf
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Help reunite a dog and his soldier: bit.ly/1bcGkv3
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• To find your local shelter: theshelterpetproject.org/shelters

“We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.” Immanuel Kant

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“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. – Mahatma Ghandhi

Things of Interest

All 50 States Now Have Felony Animal Cruelty Provisions.Thank you, Animal Legal Defense Fund, for your tireless efforts.
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Looking to adopt a particular breed of dog? MANY HUMANE SOCIETIES OFFER BREED-SPECIFIC REQUEST REGISTRATION. Chester County SPCA in PA does: ccspca.org/adopt-a-pet/matchmaker-list
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50% of proceeds from this book go to animal rescue: http://swamizoe.blogspot.com/p/my-book-daily-yoga-for-happy-and.html
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Games.co.za/cats offers online cat games. . . a portion
of this South African company's proceeds fund katuitdegracht.nl (Cat out of the Canal)--a charity that saves cats from drowning in waterways and canals in the Netherlands.